Sakurada-mon Gate stands out for its masugata, or square-shaped, design, featuring two gates positioned at a right angle to trap intruders within a stone-walled enclosure. Completed around sixteen twenty, this structure is the largest…
Imperial Palace Moat Loop
Walk the boundary of historic Edo Castle to trace its majestic stone gates, scenic moats, and outer garden enclosures.
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1. Sakurada-mon Gate
2. Statue of Kusunoki Masashige
The bronze statue of the samurai Kusunoki Masashige stands in the Kokyo Gaien National Garden, depicting a warrior mounted on a spirited horse. Reaching about eight meters in total height with its granite plinth, the sculpture captures…
3. Nijubashi Bridge
The Nijubashi Bridge is a pair of structures forming the formal entrance to the Imperial Palace. From the plaza, the two bridges often appear as a single, two-storied span crossing the moat. The foreground is a stone arch bridge, while the…
4. Ōte-mon Gate
The Ōte-mon Gate marks the entrance to the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace, standing where the main gateway to Edo Castle once controlled the flow of traffic for the Tokugawa shogunate. Its design centers on a masugata layout, a…
5. Kita-no-maru Park
Kitanomaru Park is defined by the heavy stone walls and deep, water-filled moats that once protected the northern reach of Edo Castle. Visitors enter this quiet, wooded expanse through the Tayasu-mon and Shimizu-mon gates, structures of…
6. Chidorigafuchi
Chidorigafuchi is a seven-hundred-meter-long moat located on the northwestern edge of the former Edo Castle grounds in central Tokyo. It is identifiable by its V-shaped curve, which earned it the name chidori, the Japanese word for the…